


Wasn't Fast Enough

by Shane_for_Wax



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, indoctrination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-06-08 04:49:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6839740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shane_for_Wax/pseuds/Shane_for_Wax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a different universe, Shane Shepard failed to arrive at Grissom Academy in time. Because of that, Jack was taken by Cerberus and turned into a Phantom. Shepard doesn't find out until the assault on the base towards the end of the Reaper War.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wasn't Fast Enough

“You really should have run when we took Grissom Academy, Subject Zero,” the voice was cold. Shepard felt her blood turn to ice at the words. Her heart dropped into her stomach. …Grissom. Grissom! No! She… she had been so busy with… 

Shepard felt her head grow fuzzy. She couldn’t hear the rest of it. She couldn’t. Her ears had basically shut down. Or her brain. There was a disconnect somewhere. Her heart thudded hard in her chest. She nearly dropped her rifle. Ashley came up and quickly caught the weapon then used her other hand to steady the Commander. 

The scream Jack gave off in the recording made her heart shatter. 

“Skipper…” Ashley’s voice was impossibly soft and used a tone Shane was moderately familiar with. Almost maternal in a way. But it wasn’t going to help. The Commander leaned up against a wall, swallowing the bile that had formed in her throat. 

“Shepard, this was not your fault,” Ashley tried again. Of course, Shepard wasn’t going to hear it. Or, at the least wasn’t going to listen. Of course it was Shepard’s fault. She’d gone and fucked off somewhere else. 

“She could have escaped. She did it before,” Ashley pointed out. That didn’t help either. Shepard slowly pushed herself off of the wall then shifted her rifle to better carry it with her. Again she had to swallow the bile in her throat. She didn’t think a simple recording could do this to her. What if it was fabricated and planted to throw her off of her game? That was one of the lights in the dark for her. But a little voice told her she was lying to herself. That scream was genuine. That voice was genuine. The words were genuine. She had failed another person that meant more to her than her own life. 

“Let’s just get going,” she said, her voice gruffer than she had meant to make it. EDI and Ash followed along resolutely, the latter keeping a very close eye on how the Commander moved. Shane was hurting and the Lieutenant Commander knew it. But then again, who wouldn’t be except the most frigid of hearts and dead of souls?

Shepard froze as she caught sight of something extremely familiar. The heart of the Human Reaper. The very same abomination she had killed alongside… 

“Shepard,” the voice was emotionless but it was Jack’s. Again, the Commander felt her blood run cold and she felt the bile once more. Her gaze fell upon the younger biotic, decked out in some sick parody of the armor she’d killed dozens of Phantoms in. This one was colored differently. It used Shepard’s colors. The red, black, and silver was unmistakable. More bile rose but she forced it down. 

“Jack… I don’t want to hurt you,” Shane said, taking a couple of automatic steps towards the other. She was stopped by a powerful shockwave that threw her off of her feet. She landed hard and her teammates scrambled to help her up. 

“The Queen of the Girl Scouts shows up and says she doesn’t want to hurt me. That’s real cute. It’s laughable. You couldn’t hurt me if you wanted to. God, you really are a damn pussy,” Jack spat. Shepard winced. Part of it was Jack, part of it wasn’t. And the part that wasn’t hurt the Commander to her core. 

“Jack, I can help you. I know you’re still in there. The real you. The one I met on Purgatory and helped blow Pragia to hell and back with,” Shepard said. Her voice was stronger than she had expected. 

“You can’t help me, Shepard. I don’t fuckin’ need it. You really are a dumbass,” Jack said. Words she’d spoken before but not with that tone. This Jack did not have the scared little girl hiding behind the words. Just cold, dead, sneering.

Shepard tried again to get close to the other. Another shockwave but Shane was ready. She leapt as high as she could, launching herself at the opposing biotic. One hand flashed out and Shepard yelped as sharper than she could ever remember nails ripped off flesh from her neck. Blood splattered on Jack, down Shane’s front, and the steel grated flooring. Shane landed hard on top of Jack and both had to take a moment to get oxygen again from surprise and pain.

The sight of the blood and the gaping wound in the Commander’s neck caused a change in Jack’s demeanor. For a split second, Shane saw the real Jack. The Jack that never would have done that to Shane. The Jack that actually felt guilt despite her insistence that she didn’t. The Jack that Shane had spent many a night trying to niggle even a little bit of information out of, to slowly pull the young biotic out of her shell. The Jack that Shane had promised so vehemently that she would always have Shepard to turn to. 

Ashley was shouting something but Shane didn’t hear. Her focus was entirely on Jack.

“No. No. No! Come back to me. Please. I saw you. The real you. I know you can still fight it! Jack, you’re so much stronger than this!” Shepard begged, her gloved hands scrambling at the other’s face. Sobs were starting to rack her chest. 

“Get the fuck off of me, Shepard,” Jack snarled in a voice not entirely her own. Before Shane could react she felt a foot land squarely at her stomach, effectively knocking her off of the younger biotic. The Indoctrination and the implants had clearly made the other stronger. Ashley’s hands were there again, like always, pulling the Commander up. Neither Ashley nor EDI were going to interfere. This was a battle Shane had to do on her own. They could only pick her back up. 

Shepard handed the rest of her weapons over to Ashley, minus her sidearm. The action caused the XO to stare in surprise and concern. Shepard then turned back to Jack. Biotic energy flared around her before she seemed to disappear from her spot. She reappeared right in front of Jack, who by that point had picked herself up, then grasped at her neck with one hand while the other pointed the pistol at Jack’s stomach. 

“SHEPARD?!” Jack damn near squawked. 

“I told you… a long time ago… I’d always be there for you. That I’d save you even if you didn’t want to be saved. This is one of those times, Jack,” Shepard said. Glowing hazel eyes locked onto dull brown. A spark of light that Shepard had been searching for showed in Jack’s eyes. 

“Shepard…” the voice had changed. The real Jack. The real Jack at last was shining through. 

“Do it,” Jack said, voice faint but determination easily found. Shepard bit on her lower lip then swallowed thickly. This is not what she wanted. She had killed many an Indoctrinated foe. But she had never had to kill someone she knew. Someone she knew and loved. 

“I’m so, so sorry, Jack,” Shane murmured, choking on sobs. She was supposed to be a rock. But it wasn’t fair!

“Stop… bein’… a goddamn pussy… and shoot me,” Jack ground out. Shepard could see the other woman was fighting the Indoctrination. Shepard brought the gun up from the other’s stomach to her chest. She found the weak point in the armor the woman had been forced into. 

_I don’t get why you don’t wear any._

_What’s there to fucking get, Shepard? My biotics are just fine to protect me._

_Yeah, but…_

_No armor, Shepard. Got that? I’m not wearing it. You’d have to kill me first._

The faint memory brought tears to Shepard’s eyes before she squeezed the trigger. The gun went off and she felt Jack’s body lurch. Tears freely fell from Shepard’s eyes before she dropped the gun next to her so she could use both arms to cradle the other’s body. 

“I’m… so… sorry,” Shepard murmured into the other’s ear, one hand raising to curl through Jack’s hair, which was still in a ponytail. Quietly the Commander undid the ponytail, letting the other’s hair free. Gloved fingers worked through the other’s hair as sobs racked her body. 

Ashley and EDI stood quietly nearby. Ash had tears in her own eyes, if not because they had lost an ally but because her Commander was in so much pain and had so much guilt pent-up. 

Blood and more blood. 

Her hand dropped from the other’s hair to her cheek. Shane’s biotics flared as her emotions swung wildly. Anger, pain, sorrow. It all mixed and roiled inside of her. Finally she let out a massive howl of anguish. Tears dropped freely from her eyes. 

The wolf was alone once more. No one else but Jack had even a tiny inkling of what it was like to grow up in such shitty circumstance, of feeling abandoned by your parents. Shane would never find another kindred spirit like Jack. But she would get her revenge. And she would avenge Jack. That much was certain. 


End file.
